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Never Leaving
Although a report came out this week stating that the US should leave Iraq, they will not leave any time soon. George W and his cronies will stay there a long time. They have not understood that it is time to cut their losses and run like hell.
It is obvious that they will never win Iraq. I have written about it before and do not want to get to repetitive here but they should get out before more lives are lost on both sides. The Iraqi deaths will still keep happening whether the Americans are there or not.
I read two interesting articles on the Iraq war/conflict last night. One article was about the Iraq Study Group report by James Baker and all that it implies. The other article was about the huge embassy(104 acres) that the US is building instead of helping the Iraqi people, no wonder they are not liked.
The embassy that the US is building is proof that they are setting up for a really long time and that they are turning Baghdad into a major base of operations, from which they will control the region and the oil, these guys are not leaving.
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Freaky Weather
The weather is quite springlike in Montreal today. Something is not right when it is seven degrees on the fourteenth of December. Some people will say that it is good, but definitely not right.
Everyone likes warm weather, I am no exception, but I believe that something is messed up with our climate. Where is the snow, we need it for the holiday season at least. A nice storm for Christmas would be nice but the long range forecast says not much snow on the horizon.
We can not ignore global warming forever. It is warm all over the place, last week it was so warm in London(UK) that they had a tornado. Mr. Harper and his government are just ignoring the Kyoto Accord.
People should send Mr. Harper an e-mail asking him what he thinks about this unnatural weather. I am not sure that he will write back, but if enough people annoy him about Kyoto, he may step up and do something.
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Remembering Tragedy
Today is a tragic anniversary in Montreal, a day that should not be forgotten. On this day seventeen years ago, a madman went on a shooting rampage at a Montreal engineering school killing fourteen women.
The killer’s actions were calculated and he selected the women because he was an anti-feminist. He was also very angry at the world and blamed women for all that failed in his life. It was a real sad evening that I remember very well.
That night I was going with some buddies for a coffee when the news bulletin came on the radio, we sat in the car in shock as we listened to the number of victims. We could not believe it when the announcer said that there were more than a dozen victims. It was shocking to us all that such violence could happen in our city. When we later realized that all his victims were women, we were even in more shock. Why would he just choose women like that, it did not make sense.
The senseless violence of that evening lead to stricter gun control in the country but still not strong enough as we saw a few months ago at Dawson College. The government should not get more lax on gun control, human life is too important.
We should never forget such tragedies. I fear that if we forget such events they risk happening again. I will list the names of the victims as a tribute to them below. The shooter also died that day, he turned the gun on himself, his name is not important, I will not put it on the list.
For a good article in a Vancouver based magazine on the anniversary see this link and for information on the events of that tragic day see CBC archives.
The murdered women were:
Geneviève Bergeron, 21;
Hélène Colgan, 23;
Nathalie Croteau, 23;
Barbara Daigneault, 22;
Anne-Marie Edward, 21;
Maud Haviernick, 29;
Barbara Maria Klucznik, 31;
Maryse Leclair, 23;
Annie St.-Arneault, 23;
Michèle Richard, 21;
Maryse Laganière, 25;
Anne-Marie Lemay, 22;
Sonia Pelletier, 28;
Annie Turcotte, 21.
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Dion Effect
The Liberal Party Of Canada made a wise choice on the weekend by selecting Stephane Dion as their new leader. The choice was surprising based on the polls that always seemed to place Mr Dion in fourth place but polls do not mean much during leadership conventions.
The party selected the man with the most experience on the federal political scene as opposed to the other candidates that had little or no experience. The choice was very strategic I believe. It is a move in the right direction for the party since Mr Dion has always been viewed as a man of integrity, someone that stands by what he says.
Mr. Dion is also someone that stands for the environment. He was and is a believer in the Kyoto Accord and has been the minister of the environment. The only issue with him is that he was not liked by the Quebec Liberal establishment but he has turned them around since Saturday and most have rallied behind him.
Let us now hope that the rest of the country sees the vision of Mr Dion and makes the right choice and gets rid of Mr Harper in the next election. The Harper government is just giving Canada a bad name on the international scene and making a mockery of all that Canada stands for. It is time for Mr.Harper and buddies to go, they have been there long enough.
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Mia Dolce Vita
Every now and then I decide to share a musical discovery, today is one of those days. In the past few days I have been listening to the latest CD by Marco Calliari. It is a CD of traditional Italian classics.
Marco Calliari is a Montreal based musician of Italian origin who has taken a long side trip to rediscover his Italian roots. For about sixteen years Marco Calliari was in a heavy metal band called Anonymus. The band was quite successful on the Quebec metal scene. They toured extensively throughout the province. It is in 2004 that his career took a turn and this year he left Anonymus to devote himself to his solo career.
Mr Calliari released his first solo album two years ago. The album was received well by critics and his fans, some who followed him from his metal days. The album was done entirely in Italian and consisted of original compostions and has a world beat/jazz style to it. I actually saw him in concert supporting the album in the summer of 2005, it was a great outdoor show on a hot Saturday afternon in a park, lots of fun.
Marco Calliari released his second solo album about a month ago. It is quite well done and has many Italian and Neapolitan classics done a la Calliari. Music is made to be listened to, so I suggest the following two links to get to know the music of Marco Calliari, enjoy.
Marco Calliari’ s main website and his newer web site to check out his new CD.
For the heavy metal fans.
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Ongoing Civil Wars
What is going on in Iraq is now being called a civil war but some media outlets. It has been a civil war for some time now. The Bush administration does not like this term it seems. George W can not handle the truth it seems.
We can no longer call this some sectarian violence, people are getting killed by the hundreds in Iraq some days, it is just outrageous. Obviously this is way more than just some violence here and there. It is calculated.
I believe that this would not be going on if the US had minded their own business and not invaded Iraq based on false information in the first place. Right now the US is involved in a bloody mess, they should get out of there. Some will argue that the US should send more troops. With more or less troops, this is a civil war and it is not getting better. Whether or not the US is there will not change things at all, the civil war will get worse.
On another civil war front, Canada has lost 2 more soldiers in Afghanistan this week. I have stated it before and will state it again, we should bring those troops back to Canada. Our soldiers in Afghanistan will not solve the issues that the country needs to resolve, there is lots of tribal and secular violence that needs to worked out there.
The country is full of war lords and drug lords that are hold outs from the civil war and they are the ones pulling the strings and corrupting everyone. This problem is an Afghani problem that in the end they hold the solution to, Canada’s involvement there will not change anything.
In the end our presence will not even be noticed, it will be a footnote in history, like the past wars that Canada has participated in.
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Word Play
The Canadian parliament passed a motion on Monday night declaring that Quebec is a nation within a united Canada. Unbelievably this was a motion put forth by the Conservative party, because they knew that the Bloc Quebecois was going to declare a similar motion within a few days.
What does that really mean when they say that Quebec is a nation. Semantically speaking the word nation can have many varied interpretations and implications. Declaring that Quebec is a nation is in effect equal to saying we declare Quebec is green, if we do not explain all that it implies.
What does it mean then, that the Quebecois are culturally different than the rest of Canada, no kidding we all knew that. Does it mean that Quebec is a province, we are that already. Does having nations within nations make even make sense?
Personally I think that this is another wrong move by the Harper government. Will this move unite Canada more, I believe not. If anything this move will just confuse people and cause more political headaches.
The motion was not clear, does not really state anything I believe. In a legal sense it means does not mean much, it is not a law, just a motion.
All this semantic declaration in the house does is waste our tax dollars, and nothing more. In essence the Harper government just wants Quebecois votes, and in the process is causing national confusion, in the country, but which country, which nation, now.
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Real Wacky Kramer
Seems like Michael Richards pulled a Gibson on the weekend at an LA comedy club. The Gibson refers to going on some wacky meltdown in public. A public that these days has cellphones equipped with cameras that do photo and video, which makes the meltdown available to all on the internet before you can say upload.
What got into Mr. Richards I am not sure, but the response to hecklers is not to lash out with racial tirades. All he had to do was get back at them with a quick comeback joke and that would have been it. Instead of that Mr. Richards turned into some crazy racist Mr. Hyde.
Comedy is a hard business but for Mr Richards it is a business, that he is done with now, I believe. Going on a racist rant like he pulled on the weekend is a career killer. The apology will not cut it, the damage is done.
I always liked the Kramer character on Seinfeld but now when I catch a rerun I will remember those racial slurs and it will not be as funny.
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Free Speech
I was reading an article yesterday about a new movie whose subject is freedom of expression. It dealt with what is happening to free speech in the country to the south of us and it could happen here as well.
The movie is about the Dixie Chicks, it is not a country music road movie, it is called Shut Up and Sing. It is about what occurred after the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks expressed that she was ashamed to be from the same state as George W. Bush at the beginning of the anti-war movement against the fake war in Iraq. The hunt for the elusive weapons of mass destruction.
The conservative right in the good old USA tried to railroad their career and basically get them off the airwaves. The Dixie Chicks got punished by the conservative media and the American public for voicing their opinions. What happened to freedom of speech ? Is it not one of the first amendments in the Bill Of Rights ? What is sad is that for a period of the time the right almost succeeded.
I do not believe that the movie is out here yet, but the link has some trailers that are very good and there is a related blog site.
Also see the Dixie Chicks website, I am not a big country fan, but some of their music is alright.
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